Robert Capa

[cliveh]

The helmet he carried through the 1943 Italian Campaign was inscribed “Property of Robert Capa, great war correspondent and lover.”

 

[jtk]

You folks do know that his name wasn't Robert or Capa...and you do know why, right?

 

[Bill Burk]

Well, this is what happens to Ilford Delta 100 when wetted for 5 minutes, dunked in meths, and set afire. Took about 3 seconds for the film base to corkscrew like this and for the flame to go out. The emulsion is lovely and dry and the image would be printable if the backing wasn't distorted. Absolutely no sign of the emulsion slipping.

I seem to recall that Delta films have a different film base to older film types like FP4/HP5, and maybe in Capa's day they were different again? All the same, no emulsion slippage.

It doesn't really matter, IMHO. Whatever the reason, it must have been gutting to have been to Hell and only have a couple of pictures to show.

Nice!

I claim to be first to think of two things regarding the Capa story. Alcohol/ether used for quick drying. And shutter speed set at 1250 most of the time.

If they really caught fire, you win the prize of being first to think of it.

Like MattKing, I had some photojournalism experience that made me familiar with the need to go to press fast. And I have a Contax where 1250 never worked, so I know it’s the “first thing” to go wrong with them.

Alcohol/ether boils at room temperature. That’s what they would have used. I used acetone/alcohol which boils at a higher temperature but not too hot, I figured the effect would be similar and it was.

By the way, nobody ever sends a wet print to the process camera. Emulsion sticks to the copyboard glass and is hard to scrape off.

 

[Arthurwg]

I've read the A.D. Coleman "expose" on Robert Capa more than once as Coleman's advertised it several places over the Internet. IMO, Coleman starts off okay - the melted emulsion darkroom mishap story doesn't really add up, maybe Capa made some other camera mistake under pressure - and then he goes on a misguided crusade to attempt to debunk every other detail of Capa's behavior on D-day, as if Cornell Capa was hiding the truth that Robert faked the moon landing photos.

I very much enjoyed Coleman back in the day and have several of his books. But these days he seems out of touch and obsessively concerned with trivia. I asked him a few years ago why he doesn't write about contemporary photography and he replied that none of it interests him.